Adjustable locking shoe lace tip



Oct. 12, 1948. H. SIMS 2,451,247

ADJUSTABLE LOCKING SHOE LACE TIP Filed July 29, 1944 INVEN'TOR lferman ,J'z was ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 12, 1948 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

ADJUSTABLE EOCKING SHOE more TIP Herman Sims, Brooklyn, N. Application July 29:, 1944, Serial No.,547-, 185

1 Gladml 1 My invention relates to adjustable locking shoe lace tips which eliminate the need of a bow or other knot. in shoe laces for tieing the shoes, whereby the considerable extra length of lace heretofore required for the knot is; saved andthe necessity for a knot. is eliminated.

Several million yards. of shoe lace. material are required each year to. supply the. demand in this country, and thepresent; invention will: enablev a very substantial saving ta be effected in. silk, cotton and rayonv goods. and thereby release. a large quantity of such goods; for war production and other vital purposes; It, has; heretofore: been: proposed to employ locking; devices; with. shoe strings, but since such devices; were not suitablyadjustable for length, it. was usually necessaryto use shoe strings of rubber orother elastic;

material. Also, the. proposed. devices. were.

cumbersome and complicated. irr structure, and could not be passed through the'eyeletsofshoes; they complicated unduly the manufacture of: shoe laces, and were in general impracticable.

An. object of the present. invention is a. locking shoe lace tip which is, practicable with re.- spect to manufacture and use, and which enables a saving of from eighteen to twenty-four inches of conventional shoelace material: for each pair of laces.

Another object is a locking shoe lace tip. whichis adjustable longitudinally to an amount sufficient to accommodate a widevariation. in the degree of tightness of the shoe, laces secured thereby, to accommodate the wishesand eomfortof. the

wearers.

Still another object is an. adjustable. locking: shoe lace tip which may readily be formed on the ends of the laces during manufacture of the laces, and which may be made either from metal or various of the plastic materials commonly employed for conventional lace tips.

An additional object is a locking shoe lace tip which is small, neat and smart in appearance and which obviates bows and knots in the laces while afiording the degree of adjustability and comfort desired.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment thereof, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 shows an Oxford or low cut shoe which is fastened with a lace secured by lock tips in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the com- (Cl. 24.---11i71)? 2 pl'ementary' loch ti-pmembers when interlocked for securing the ends of the lace together;

Fig. Sis an enlargedplanview showing the'ma'le and femalelock ti p members before they are irrterloc-ked Fig. 4; shows the male and fem-ale members in elevation, thefemale member havinga side wall portion broken away to show: the inner con=stmction;

Fig. 5. isa cross: sectional view taken along the linea 5 --5 of Fig. 2;

6: is. an end: view oftheemale member, lookings in the direction of the arrow F-G- Fig. 4

Fig; 7 is. an: end View of the female member; looking, in the direction of the arrows- T-J in Fig-l t; and

Fig. azisaview or theloic-ln-tip si'rce lace of Fig; I beiore its. insertion. the: eyelets of the shoe.

Referring: toz Fig: 13,. it. will: be seenthatno how or" other knot requiredto hold the ends of the. shoe. lace together when, the shoe is onthe foot of the wearer. In: the: figure the shoe S is of the (Dicfiord. or low! cut t but the invention is equally well adapted for other typesof shoes: including tops. The material? of the lace IOJ may comprme: silk; cottom. rayon or mixtin es; thereof; ordinarily employedi in: the conventional. shoelace; which: materials; as: woven. into the lace are: substantially inelastic; The lock up struc turea comprises,- av malee tip. ML, secured? to: one: end

of the-lace, theamalertin heingadjnstably received;

within a: fiemaletip Hi which; is; secured: toa the! other end Of. the; lace. 'liha tips be secured to. the; lace: ends. in conventional. as. bybeing; crimped: im the: case oil metal tips; on molded or pressed in: the case oii tips: formed: of: material; tips in accordance with the invention may be formed either from metal or from a phenolic condensation product or other suitable plastic material. The broken line positions a and b shown in Fig. 1 indicate the male and female lock tip members before they are interlocked when fastening the shoe.

Referring to Figs. 3 and 4, the male tip I I has a longitudinally extending row of teeth, threads or other serrations [4 formed on the outer surface thereof; the width of the row or the arcuate extent thereof around the circumference of the tip is limited, as seen in Fig. 6. The female tip [2 is hollow throughout the greater part of its length, and has formed on its inner surface a complementary serrated portion l5 adapted to receive and engage the projecting serrations I4 on the tip I I to lock the male tip with the female tip.

The innersurf-ace of tip 12 a slot l6, Fig. '7,

throughout the serrated portion thereof, the slot being sufliciently wide and deep so that the row of serrations It will enter and slide in the slot I6 when tip I I is pushed into tip I2. After the male tip is slid into the female tip a distance to cause the ends of the lace to be sufficiently tight, either the male tip or the fem-ale tip is rotated relative to the other to cause the teeth or serrations I 4 toenter and engage the threads formed by serrations I5, which thereby coact to prevent the tips from pulling apart until one of the tips is again rotated relative to the other so that the serrated row I4 is again in substantial alignment with the slot I6, when the tips may be slid apart. As will be noted from Fig. 5, only a slight turning movement of either tip relative to the other is required to lock or unlock the tips, although it is preferable to turn one of the tips through a greater angle when locking them, so that if either end of the lace should twist somewhat this would not cause the tips to become unlocked. The male tip is made sufficiently small in diameter relative to the inner serrated surface I5 of the female tip to provide suitable clearance and enable tip I I to be inserted without binding until it is rotated and locked. Each tip may be made small enough to pass through the shoe eyelets, and thus if desired the lace ends may be pulled out of the first eyelet or two when removing the shoe or putting it on.

Neither the male nor female lock tip need be substantially longer than the conventional lace tips in use; for example, each tip may be to 7 8 of an inch in length. Only a small end portion of the serrated ridge I4 of the tip II, comprising a few serrations thereof, is required to be inserted within the tip i2 and turned to effect a locking action, but the tip I I may be inserted any desired distance into tip I 2 and turned, thereby to adjust the degree of tightness or. tension of the shoe lace to the wearers comfort or liking. 7

When tying shoes the wearer ordinarily pulls the ends of the shoe laces somewhat tighter than they are worn in order to compensate for the slack introduced when tying a knot in the conventional type of shoe lace, and with the laces of this invention sufficient slack is thus obtained tofa-cilitate the insertion of the tip II into the end of. tip I2, and after the tips are interlocked any tension in the end portions of the lace is relieved and becomes equally distributed between the upper rows of lacing in the usual manner. The elimination of the usual bow knot represents a very considerable saving in shoe lace material, as hereinbefore stated. Moreover, the absence of a bow improves the appearance of the shoes and eliminates the hazard caused by bow knots becoming untied which frequently results in tripping the wearer. Laces having tips in accordance with this invention may be secured more quickly when putting on shoes than when a knot is re quired to be tied, and the tension of the laces may easily and quickly be readjusted whenever desired to suit the comfort of the wearer- 'Ilhe embodiment disclosed in the drawings illustrates one form of serrations which are desirable because the serrated tips may be made and applied to the laces automatically and by quantity production methods, but it will be obvious that the tips and the locking surfaces thereon may have specifically different configurations and formations without departing from the spirit of the invention, and therefore I do not desire to be limited except as indicated by the scope of the appended'clairn. V

What I: claim is: t A shoe lace having adjustable locking telescopic tips on the ends thereof for fastening the lace with varying degrees of tightness in the shoe of a wearer without tying a knot in the lace, one of said tips being hollow and adapted to telescope the other tip to enable the latter to be slid therein a varying distance, the inner surface of the larger T tip and the outer surface of the smaller tip comprising complemental serrated strips extending longitudinally along the tips releasably to lock the endstogether in overlapping relation when one of the tips is rotated relative to the other,

said serrated strips comprising positive locking means for holding the ends interlocked against the tension exerted on the lace when the shoe is worn, said complemental serrated strips extending a sufiicient distance relative to each other to enable them to be thus interlocked in a plurality of overlapped positions of the tips-to adjust the tension of the lace in the shoe, at least one of said tips being sufiiciently small in cross-section to enable it to pass through the eyelets'of the shoe.

HERMAN SIMS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent: 

